The New York water supply system serves Westchester County and New York
City, except for Jamaica in Queens County. This system has been the purest and most
bountiful supply of drinking water in the United States. It utilizes three separate
systems of reservoirs which obtain water from some 2,000 square miles of watershed in
upstate New York. The three systems include the Croton System, the Catskill System and the
Delaware System. Generally the three elements of the New York City delivery system
represent separate systems without direct inter-connections. Two tunnels City Tunnel No. 1
and No. 2 carry water from the Croton System to New York City. The Richmond Tunnel carries
water from City Tunnel No. 2 to Staten Island. A new tunnel, City Tunnel No. 3, has been
under construction since 1970. Most of the work in Manhattan and the Bronx has been
completed. Tunneling is underway in Brooklyn and Queens.

New York City has a unique water supply system which has been the envy of the world. It
was not always this way, for may years the city had many problems with its drinking water
supply. Many of its citizens died or became very ill due to contaminated water. Primitive
dug wells served the colonys population when it was first settled. By 1664 the
population was 1,500. Waste and sewage were disposed of in pits or open dumps. This system
was effective until the population density grew. Water became polluted and people started
coming down with typhoid fever and intestinal diseases. By 1790, with a population of
33,000, it was clear that a central water system was needed. A large pond called the
Collect Pond had been serving New Amsterdam and New York. Buckets and carts were used to
draw from the ponds waters. With the increasing population growth, and the
unsanitary habits of its citizens, poor taste and pollution was the result.

In 1799, the first true water supply system of New York was created by the Manhattan
Company. This company was created to conduct business as a bank. Service was limited
because the company's real purpose was to be a bank. The Bank of the Manhattan Company
still lives as a part of Chase Manhattan Bank.

The Manhattan Company served only 2,000 homes through 25 miles of piping. This water
only served the upper class and was badly served by a company that only cared to maintain
the illusion of a public water service while protecting its banking operations. Anyone not
fortunate enough to be connected would have to get their water the traditional way, public
pumping or from people peddling water on the street. The shortage of potable water was
thought by some New York residents to be behind the rise in public drunkenness, not the
unsanitary ways of the citizens. The water became more and more polluted and outbreaks of
disease continued to hit New York; yellow fever in 1819 and 1822, cholera in 1832 and
1834. Doctors warned that a decent water supply was essential, if the town wanted to
prevent further outbreaks.

In 1835, the city voted to spend $12 million to dam the Croton River, approximately 45
miles north of Manhattan. It would then import its water by aqueduct to reservoirs from
which it would be piped all over the city. The Croton system was managed according to the
principle that the customers would pay the costs of its construction and operation. If a
customer wanted water in their home, the Croton Aqueduct Board required payment of
installation costs plus a minimum of 10 dollars a year for water rent. The Board also
provided public hydrants where water could be obtained without charge, for the less
fortunate.

The Croton system was an essential part of the life support system required by the
growing metropolis. Without it the city would have never grown from 300,000 in 1830 to a
city of 3.5 million at the turn of the century. The introduction of the Croton water
caused the ground water level to rise many feet, because the waste water was disposed of
locally. Consequently the Croton Department laid 70 miles of sewers between 1850-1855. New
York City once again developed a wasteful lifestyle. The Croton system was capable of
delivering 30 million gallons a day, enough to meet the citys growing needs for many
years. However, in a little more than a decade, consumption was threatening to exceed
demand.

In 1910, New York Citys population climbed to over 4.8 million. The larger
population put a strain on the Croton system and the city was forced to reach out to the
Catskill mountains to meet demands. The city purchased vast areas of land in the Catskill
and purchased the watershed rights to many more. The Ashokan Reservoir was constructed and
the water was transported to the city by a 92 mile aqueduct. The Catskill system
incorporated rock-hewn tunnels, which were lined with concrete 12-15 feet in diameter and
remained within the rock strata. The Catskill Tunnel 1 started from the citys Hill
View Reservoir and served Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn. Tunnel 2, constructed
approximately 7 years later, started at the Schoharie Reservoir. An 18 mile tunnel linked
Schoharie to the Ashokan Reservoir. This tunnel served parts of the Bronx, Queens and
Brooklyn. Tunnel 3 will, when finished, supplement the other tunnels, however its major
function will be to permit the other two to be shut down for repairs.

Today, 50% of the citys water comes from the Delaware system, 40% from the
Catskill system, and the remaining 10% comes from the Croton system. The city now has 19
reservoirs; the farthest is 120 miles from central Manhattan. This long travel time, which
is powered by gravity, results in most of the microbes dying naturally. The water is
treated with:

chlorine to kill organisms,

fluoride to prevent tooth decay,

sodium hydroxide to raise pH levels, and

orthophosphate, a substance that coats pipes, to prevent lead from leaching into the
drinking water.

New York Citys water, in the past, has won many awards for its taste, and
has long been toasted as "the champagne of drinking water" but today it has
"lost its sparkle." History repeats itself, is a popular expression which
can certainly be used to describe the New York City Water Supply System. In several
instances throughout New Yorks history, citizens have been inflicted with various
illnesses from their public water supply and this still is the case today. However, it is
no longer typhoid fever, yellow fever, or cholera but new diseases caused from microbes
that cannot be killed by chlorine alone.

One bacteria invading New York Citys water is E. coli, short for Escherichia
coli, a bacteria that grows in the colon of humans and other animals. E. coli is not
usually a health hazard in itself, but it is a measure of extent that harmful fecal matter
has contaminated the water. High E. Coli counts means that it is more likely the water is
also tainted with giardia and cryptosporidium or other microbes responsible for diseases
such as hepatitis, and salmonella. Giardia and cryptosporidium often cause flu-like
symptoms such as a fever, chronic diarrhea, or dehydration. It is particularly deadly to
those with weak immune systems such as AIDS, HIV positive patients, the elderly and young
babies. Increasing the chlorine doses to counter the rise in E.coli has meant 50%
increases of a chemical by-product called trihalomethanes, or THMs, formed when
chlorine reacts with organic matter in the water. There is evidence of a link between
THMs and rectal and bladder cancer and birth defects. Also, the city has had more
fecal-waste violations than any other US city.

In 1993, the city promised the federal government that it would try to stop or slow
construction in the watershed areas to preserve quality of the drinking supply. Parts of
Northern Westchester and Putnam counties are now experiencing a major rise in
construction. The Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) insists that New York City
must implement tough new regulations on land use in the watershed area. The city released
a Watershed Protection Plan as one of the conditions for allowing New York City drinking
water supply to remain unfiltered. Filtration involves building a giant plant where water
passes through sand beds or a similar filter, like crushed anthracite coal. This process
usually rids the water of parasitic microbes. The city is one of six cities in the country
that is exempt from a 1986 law that requires all municipal systems to filter their water.
Those other cities own either most or all of their watershed. They limit the population
and do not allow sewage discharge in their watershed area.

New York Citys watershed is treated differently. There are 200,000 people living
within its 2000 square mile watershed area. New York City owns only about 10% of the area.
There are 104 sewage plants discharging their effluent directly in the water shed area.
City officials, however, have argued that the size of the citys watershed makes
filtration unnecessary because pollutants are naturally dispersed.

In 1993, the EPA issued a Determination, effective until December 15, 1996, granting
filtration avoidance to New York City. The city must comply with more than 150 conditions
dealing mainly with increased watershed protection. Some actions that must be taken
included: creating new watershed regulations, partnership programs with watershed and
farming communities, upgrading of sewage treatment facilities, enforcement of water
quality regulations, and land acquisition. If they do not follow this Determination the
city, under the Clean Water Act, could face building a filtration plant that would cost
them $3-8 billion to build and $2-4 million to maintain annually.

Currently, the city is already under a Federal Order to build a $600 million plant to
filter the water from reservoirs east of the Hudson River. In early September of 1996, the
city released a comprehensive water protection agreement between the city, the state, and
upstate communities. This agreement will put off, until at least 2002, the federal
Determination, released in 1993, which threatened the city with the prospect of having to
build a costly filtration plant. This agreement will force upstate communities to abide
with some new rules from the city but at the same time forces the city to spend $230
million to buy land within the watershed and $400 million to support economic development
in the Catskills and to stop pollution from sewage plants and other sources. The city has
taken a less harsh approach to controlling development within the watershed. Earlier
methods were met with much criticism and lawsuits from watershed towns. Previously, the
city acquired lands by eminent domain without consideration of the owners needs or wishes.
It then relocated homes and cemeteries and flooded the abandoned towns. Now, they can only
acquire land by "willing buyer, willing seller" purchases.

Besides concerns about the quality of water being supplied to New York City, there is
also concern about the quantity of water available. New York City residents use about
1,500 million gallons per day. The three water systems can supply a maximum of 1,850
gallons per day. The safe yield of the system, that is the amount of water that can be
produced during a period of drought, is 1,226 million gallons per day. Thus, New York City
cannot expand its water use or tolerate a break in one of the aqueducts supplying water to
the city.

Appendix: Following are more detailed descriptions of each of the three systems
supplying water to New York City and Westchester County.

The Croton System

The Croton System is the oldest controlling flow from 12 reservoirs and five lakes
which covers about 370 square miles of the Croton River Drainage Basin. The average yield
of the system is 300 million gallons per day (MGD). The safe yield is 246 MGD.

The Catskill System

The Catskill System consists of two reservoirs, the Ashokan and the Schoharie. The
Ashokan Reservoir impounds water from 247 square miles of the drainage basin of the Esopus
Creek which drains into the Hudson River. Water from the Ashokan Reservoir is fed into the
Catskill Aqueduct and delivered to the Kensico reservoir or the Hillview Reservoir. The
Schoharie Reservoir impounds water from the 314 square mile drainage basin of the
Schoharie Creek which drains into the Mohawk River. Water from the Schoharie Reservoir is
delivered to the Esopus Creek Basin via the Shandanken Tunnel which drains into a branch
of the Esopus Creek and thence by open stream to the Ashokan Reservoir.

The Ashokan and Schoharie Reservoirs drain into the Catskill Aqueduct with a capacity
of 550 MGD as it drains into Kensico Reservoir. The portion of the aqueduct between the
Kensico and Hillview Reservoirs has a capacity of 880 MGD.

The Delaware System

The Delaware System consists of three reservoirs located in the Delaware River Basin,
the Canonsville, Pepacton and Neversink Reservoirs, and the Rondout Reservoir on Rondout
Creek in the Hudson River Basin. Water is delivered via separate tunnels from
Cannonsville, Pepacton and Neversink Reservoirs to Rondout Reservoir and from there
through the Delaware Aquduct to the Kensico Reservoir. The Delaware Aqueduct intercepts
the Croton System at the West Branch Reservoir. The Cannonsville Reservoir receives water
from the 450 square mile watershed of the West Branch of the Delaware River. The Pepacton
Reseroin receives water from the 372 square mile watershed of the East Branch of the
Delaware River. The Neversink Reservoir receives water from the 93 square mile watershed
of the Neversink River. The Rondout Reservoir receives water from the 95 sqare mile
watershed of the Rondout River and serves as a collecting reservoir for the water from the
three other reservoirs in the Delaware system. The safe yield of the entire Delaware water
system is 610 MGD. Water from the Rondout Reservoir travels through the Delaware Aqueduct
to the West Branch Reservoir in the Croton System. Water from the Pepacton and Neversink
Tunnels is also used to produce hydroelectricity.

References

The New Metropolis; New York City 1840-1857. Edward K. Spann. Columbia
University Press. New York. 1981